


Cruel

by nerrin



Category: Fate/Apocrypha, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Inktober 2018, Minor Character Death, how do i tag his former master from the third grail war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-09-01 17:12:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16769398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerrin/pseuds/nerrin
Summary: By the time Amakusa reaches her, she is already dead.





	Cruel

He is not there with her when she dies.

When Amakusa finds his Master at last, she is lying in the wintery forest, the thin trees around them barren. He would have not spotted her, her pale skin and silver hair almost blending in with the white of fresh snowfall, if not for the stark red splattered against the ice. Flakes of snow dust her body, coming to rest on colorless lips. Blood pours from a wound in her torso -- there is a large, gaping rip in her abused flesh, as if someone had reached in and pulled out an organ with their bare hands. 

She is colder than usual when Amakusa takes her in his arms. He presses her closer, and her head lolls against his chest. The movement causes her her long hair to fall, framing her dainty face. It shadows her blank expression entirely from his view.

A moment passes. 

It is only when the thin trickle of blood at the edge of her mouth drips downwards, darkening a spot on his black sleeves, that Amakusa acknowledges, with uncharacteristic bitterness, that the homunculus woman is dead.

“We should --” he begins, but his words don’t come out right and the sentence chokes in his throat, tight with so many things he wants to articulate but his mind is as blank as the expanse of snow around them.

He should do something about the body. He sets her down upon the cold ground, crossing her hands over her chest. He pulls her eyelids shut. He arranges her hair the best that he can into a semblance of order, and for a moment, it is possible to pretend that she looks peaceful like this, even with the hole in her stomach.

After a pause, he tries again.

“We should at least bury you,” Amakusa murmurs, to the hollow shell that had once been his Master. 

She had been a lot of things in her short life. She had been a strange, beautiful creation; a flawless existence made in the image of humankind. She lived within the old stone walls of her castle and was content to never leave the small town she’d been born in, but also did not laugh when he’d confided in her his desire for humanity’s salvation.

“Are homunculi part of that ‘humanity’?” she had asked, her ruby-red eyes serene as she looked to him.

He hadn’t hesitated when he’d replied, “Of course.”

Amakusa sucks in a breath, the cold air stinging his lungs. He does not have much time left in this world without an anchor. He straightens, getting to his feet. 

Snow crunches underfoot as he traces his steps out of the forest surrounding the Einzbern castle, until he can no longer see the body of his Master even if he turns to glance back. To leave her like this puts a sour note in his mouth, but he has little choice. Even without their Servant, the Yggdmillennia family has found their way to the Greater Grail slumbering beneath the city. There would be time for a proper burial later.

There are still things he must do.


End file.
